The Chase Renewed For Season 2 At GSN Ahead Of Series Premiere

It's usually a good sign for a TV series when the network opts to renew it before its first season airs. At the very least, it shows said network's faith that the show will be successful. We were just talking about this last month when Netflix announced that they were already up for another season of Jenji Kohan's new series Orange is the New Black, though they had yet to debut the first season. And this week, GSN offered similar treatment to their upcoming new quiz show The Chase, which won't premiere until August but is now being chased into a second season.

GSN made the announcement this week that they've ordered a second season of their new series The Chase. This news comes more than a month ahead of the show's premiere, which is set for Tuesday, August 6. Based on a U.K. series by the ams name, The Chase is a one-hour quiz show, which features three contestants battling in a face-paced quiz competition against "an all-knowing opponent," known as The Beast. Actor Brook Burns (Baywatch, Melrose Place) is the host of the U.S. version of the series and Mark Labbett serves as the mentioned "Beast." He was one of the original "Chasers" in the U.K. series, so he has some experience with this gig already. He brings his 6'7", 370 pounds frame to the table. He's also got degrees from Oxford, Exeter and Glamorgan to back up his brain. Something tells me that kind of education comes in handy when facing off against contestants in a quiz show setting.

“The high stakes of this ‘all or nothing,’ ‘David vs. Goliath’ battle of the brains result in riveting television,” said Amy Introcaso-Davis, EVP, Programming and Development, GSN. “While there is great gameplay in THE CHASE, it is also wildly entertaining to watch the always engaging Brooke Burns spar with trivia savant, Mark Labbett aka The Beast.”

GSN has ordered eight more episodes of the series, and they plan to get them on the air later this year, which might make Season 2 feel a bit like an extension of the first season. Regardless, those who like the series when it airs later this summer will be able to rest assured that the series will be coming back.

Without any episodes of the first season to go by, it's hard to really celebrate news of the renewal beyond adding to our anticipation of the series premiere. But we can take a look at the British version of the series, which might give us a better idea of the format of the show. YouTube has delivered there. Check out an episode from the third season of the U.K. version of The Chase below:

Just going by the first part, it looks like this is a fast-moving trivia competition, with the host firing questions at the contestant one after another to see how much money they can add to their total before the clock runs out. Then the contestant moves on to face off against the Chaser. They both ring in on multiple choice questions and the contestant tries to stay ahead of the Chaser in correct answers and bank some money, after which they move on to the final chase.